Thursday, January 16, 2014

What He's Reading

Our Drew has become quite the bookworm. He loves to read. Absolutely loves it. Even though he may occasionally say that he doesn’t love it, he so totally does. At the beginning of this school year, we banned TV watching in the morning, so as an alternative, Drew began reading. And reading and reading and reading. He isn’t allowed to come out of his bedroom until 7:00, so if he’s awake before then, he’ll plop himself down on the floor to read by the glow of the night light. {He makes sure his book is on his nightstand before he falls asleep just to be sure it’s there when he wakes.} If it’s after 7:00, he’ll make himself comfortable on the couch and read there. And he picks up his books at various times during the day, reading several chapters at a time. I’m fairly certain it took him all of two days to get through that Winne-the-Pooh book.

Drew also has the habit of reading more than one book at a time. It’s not as if he’s bored with one book and picks up another; I think he’s just that excited to begin the next one. Or, in the case of Christmas, he’ll receive a new book as a gift, and regardless of how many others he’s reading, he’ll want to start the new one right away.

So here’s a peek into what he’s reading right now…

On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder — Drew’s teacher has been reading theLittle House books to his class, and Drew decided he wanted to read them himself along with his teacher. So he first checked out Little House in the Big Woods from his school library, followed byLittle House on the Prairie, and then went back and read theBig Woods over again. Grammy then brought Drew her box set of the series so he could read them whenever he liked. His teacher is currently reading Plum Creek, so Drew decided to start that one, too.

Captain Underpants and the Revolting Revenge of the Radioactive Robo-Boxers by Dav Pilkey — This is the 10th book in the Captain Underpants series. I picked up the first eight books at a garage sale last summer, and we read them together. We’ve been waiting and waiting and waiting to get our hands on the 9th and 10th books, and Drew finally received them from Grammy and Papa as a gift for Christmas. He dug in right away, finishing the 9th book before we even got home from Minnesota!

Magic Tree House #1: Dinosaurs Before Dark by Mary Pope Osborne — Drew brought this one home from the school library last week. I was pretty {pleasantly} surprised with his selection; we’ve found it’s hard for him to pick out a new book or new series. For some reason he hesitates to try a new book he hasn’t heard of before or isn’t somehow familiar with. I asked if someone had recommended this one to him, and he said no. I’m just encouraged to see him try something new!

George Brown, Class Clown by Nancy Krulik — We gave the first two books in this series to Drew for Christmas, and he wasn’t impressed. Evidence of the doesn’t-want-to-read-what-he-isn’t-familiar-with syndrome. He isn’t currently reading these, but I have a hunch that if we start reading one to him, shortly after, he’ll begin reading them on his own.

The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis — Brad began reading The Chronicles of Narnia series to the boys at the end of the summer, and after having read through the first two books, Drew wanted to read them himself. Obviously, these books are way advanced for Drew’s current reading level, so I’m unsure exactly how many words he’s skipping over because he doesn’t know them, nor do I know exactly how much he’s comprehending with both the verbage and the story content, but he’s opening the book and giving it a shot. And that’s awesome.

So love that he loves words and books and reading. So love that he often times prefers to read over doing other things. So love seeing his little nose buried deep within the pages. So love this little man.